Renowned ensemble to perform Nöels at Royce

  Les Arts Florissants UCLA Live presents artistic director
William Christie and the world renowned French
early music ensemble Les Arts Florissants on Dec. 2.

By Chris Moriates
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

It’s the holidays, and that means out comes the holiday
music. But this time of year does not bring out just those old
Chipmunks Christmas albums, but also provides some rare, somewhat
more cultured, performances and opportunities.

World-renowned French early music ensemble, Les Arts Florissants
and Artistic Director William Christie, will perform Marc-Antoine
Charpentier’s Nöels in their UCLA debut at Royce Hall
this Sunday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m.

Les Arts Florissants’ three-week tour highlights its
much-anticipated release, “Messe de Minuit”
(Erato-Warner October 2001).

Although this is the ensemble’s first visit to Royce Hall,
it tours widely and has regular performances at the Opéra
National de Paris, the Théâtre du Châtelet, the
Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Aix-en-Provence
Festival, the Barbican Centre, Lincoln Center and the Brooklyn
Academy of Music.

The “Messe de Minuit” adapts a series of traditional
Christmas tunes, and applies them to a liturgical text. The
performance is a great example of mixing high art with pop
culture.

Tickets to Les Arts Florissants are available for $55, $45, $35
and $16 (UCLA students with valid ID) at the UCLA Central Ticket
Office at the southwest corner of the James West Alumni Center,
online at http://www.performingarts.ucla.edu
and at all Ticketmaster outlets.